O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How long til my child rips off your ornaments?
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
You pose a great temptation.
My best are made of precious glass,
They stay in their box, I fear a crash.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How long til my child rips off your ornaments?
We decorated our Christmas tree tonight while Nana kept Hannah safe (and out of the way) for us. We didn't put up a Christmas tree last year because we knew that we'd be traveling to Taiwan over the holidays, and who wants to put down a Christmas tree when you're jet lagged and home with a new baby? Not us! You can tell that Kevin helped me decorate by the ornament that has the prime spot at the very tip top of the tree. Can you tell what it is???

When Nana brought Hannah home, we videotaped her reaction with hopes that she'd be excited and would oooh and ahhh at the lights. She likes looking at it, but she's a little afraid of it so far and doesn't want to go anywhere near it right now. Her ball rolled underneath the tree tonight and she cried until I fished it out. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the Christmas tree trepidation won't last, and we'll find ornaments scattered about in a few days. I didn't put any of my favorite German glass ornaments on this year, except for the pickle. Gotta have a pickle!

Video: animal sounds

Feels like we're hitting milestones every day, and there's no time to blog. I baked cookies a few days ago to try and teach the word "cookie." No one, not even Hannah, could refuse to say "cookie" for some hot gooey chocolate chip goodness right out of the oven. It was so much fun to have her say cookie over and over that I baked peanut butter cookies the next day for when the speech therapist came!

I've been working on animal sounds with Hannah for a long time, and they are clicking this week. Two weeks ago she said horse and would "nay." All of a sudden last night she will meow, woof, quack, and baa too! Fun times!

Today the decision was made to officially discharge Hannah from First Steps physical therapy but keep on with the speech therapy. Hannah is meeting 21 month milestones for gross motor skills, so she's pretty much caught up. We're continuing to work on balance skills by sitting on a ball and going up and down small steps, but it looks like we don't have any more major obstacles ahead of us.

Oh. And Hannah learned that bologna has adhesive properties. Apparently it's fun to stick on your arm, on your bouncey ball, and in your airplane. Ew. Ew ew.

Video: Go go go!

Video: reorganization

Maclaren stroller recall affecting 1 million strollers

Here's a link about the recall that is affecting pretty much every Maclaren stroller sold in the last 10 years. Kevin has our Maclaren out folding and unfolding it in the kitchen trying to figure out the danger point. He figured out where kids are loosing their fingers, but Hannah is always in her carseat when we fold and unfold the stroller.

Video: battle in the toy aisle

thankful

Taking a little break from blogging these days, but thinking a lot about being thankful. Our one year "Hannahversary" is drawing near. Thankful that Hannah can walk... and walks quickly when she has somewhere she wants to go. New words and understandings are revealed to us every day. The physical therapist is ready to discharge Hannah from First Steps. The speech therapist thinks that she's almost there, but would like to see her use some more action words such as "go" before Hannah is discharged.

I found my dream house for sale this week listed for 60K less than what someone built it for three years ago, and then the previous owners put a lot of bling into the house after it was built. Finished basement, custom blinds, bar in the basement, built in entertainment center, office with built in cabinetry all around the room, hardwood and tile flooring, and a new wooden swing set, slide, and sandbox for Hannah. We looked at it, loved it... and then did the math. Our saving the last few years paid off college loans and adoption related expenses. We should follow the original plan and save for a few more years before pursuing the dream home, but it is heartbreaking to let go of such a good deal, interest rates are still low, and it is exactly what we want. I'm trying to shake off "house fever" and work on just being thankful for what we have... but I still have that nagging feeling in my gut that we should be jumping at this opportunity.

We went for a walk in the park this afternoon after brunch. After picking up a leaf for each hand, Hannah did really well walking down the trail all by herself. Hidden roots in the leaves caused a few face plants, but she quickly picked herself "bup" and and kept on going.